Christmas cardinal

This is another card I made for World Cardmaking Day last month but never got on the blog. This was another Splitcoast challenge, and this one was to use colors from a country's flag. We got to pick the country, so I chose one that was red, green and white so I could get started on some holiday cards! I have a small stash of holiday cards built up, but I still have a ways to go! One of the things I'm trying to do this year is use up stuff I've had in my stash for ages or just haven't used before. I didn't buy any new Christmas stamps, and so far, I haven't bought any new paper! This paper is from the Basic Grey Dasher collection; I had a whole package of 12x12 that had never been opened, so I'm finally cutting into it. I paired it with this image from Flower for All Seasons; I love the cardinal and poinsettia pairing. The image was colored with Copics and I added a little dot of Stickles to the center of each bloom for some sparkle. I think one of the best things about this card is that it is super flat - no extra postage required!

Supplies:
Stamps: Flower for all Seasons, Sincere Salutations (SU)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: Basic Grey Dasher collection, neenah white, artichoke, riding hood red
Accessories: circle punch, scallop punch, stickles, Hero Arts red rhinestones, ribbon

Happy Harvest with Gina

I made this card last month for World Cardmaking Day, but just realized it never made the blog! The card was for Gina K's challenge on Splitcoast; she asked us to use a color combination of pumpkin, chocolate, and vanilla. Sounds like dessert, doesn't it? I wanted to use a Gina stamp for the card, so I pulled out the pumpkins from Happy Harvest. I stamped them in Memento Rich Cocoa ink on shimmery vanilla paper and colored them with Copics. I used half-squares from my Nestabilities to layer them. On the bottom is my favorite Indian Summer designer paper from Basic Grey. I finished the card with ribbon and a button from my stash.
Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Harvest, Gina K Designs
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Copic markers
Paper: Chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, shimmery vanilla, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Accessories: Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, corner rounder, ribbon, button, linen thread

Circle time

I'm taking some time away from the stamp table for a long weekend off. My mom's visiting and we're heading to do some sightseeing and maybe some shopping in San Diego! We might even hit some stamp/scrap stores and pick up some new goodies to play with. My mom's not a stamper, but she is a scrapbooker so I always try to take her to an LSS or two while she's in town. I think we'll hit some new stores this visit.
Now on to the card. I made this a few weeks ago for my friend's son who was turning 7. I struggle with masculine/boy cards, but I know this particular kid likes circles and bright colors, so I went with a geometric circle theme. The open circle stamp is from the SU set Riveting. The star circle is from SU's Starring You. I'm not sure about the layout, but I was trying to fix a little boo boo and that dictated the placement of things!
Supplies:
Stamps: Riveting, Starring You
Ink: Brilliant blue, tempting turquoise, green galore
Paper: brilliant blue, tempting turquoise, gable green, whisper white
Accessories: Cuttlebug, circle punches, corner rounder, brads

Happy Halloween!

Happy boo to all of you, my loyal blog readers! I saved my favorite Halloween card of this year's bunch for the actual day. You're probably all getting sick of this designer paper, but I want you to know it's almost all gone! I love the spiders on the paper and decided to showcase them with this card. I cut some circles and squares with my Nestabilities and stamped the spider from SU's Booglie Eyes in them. The spiders were colored with Copics, and I used a blender pen to create a bit of texture in the purple of their bodies. I finished the card off with the last of my sparkly purple spider brads and my favorite Rosie's Roadshow sentiment.
Hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween with lots of treats and no tricks!
Supplies:
Stamps: Booglie Eyes, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: elegant eggplant, basic black, neenah white, green galore, Pinecone Press dp
Accessories: Nestabilities, word window punch, spider brad

A little ghost

Halloween is getting closer so I figure I ought to post the last of my Halloween cards! I am determined to use up this designer paper with this year's batch of cards, but I was getting tired of using the same images, so I switched it up on this card. I thought I would work with the pumpkins in the designer paper, so I picked out this image from SU's Booglie Eyes to go with the paper. I went with this layout primarily to avoid covering up the pumpkins too much!
Supplies:
Stamps: Booglie Eyes, SU; Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: Elegant eggplant, tangerine tango, basic black, neenah white, Pinecone Press dp
Accessories: Square punches, word window punch

Feeling lucky!

As I'm sure most of my readers do, I subscribe to quite a few blogs that I check regularly (I use Google Reader and it is great for going through my blog subscriptions quickly!) And whenever anyone posts a giveaway, especially for things I'd enjoy adding to my craft stash, I throw my name in the hat. Well, that persistence had paid off, I guess! I recently won to contests for some great goodies. The first was World Cardmaking Day contest held by Stampin' Gal Val, who gave away this fabulous coffee stamp set from Our Craft Lounge. And look at that wonderful card she made to go with the stamps? Isn't it fabulous?
My other new and fabulous goody is this collection of Amuse's new Shimmer Couture paper. They were giving away a collection on the Amuse blog and I won it! This paper is divine - super, super shimmery, with fabulous colors. The photo does not do it justice. The collection includes solids and a brocade print to match each solid (except the white). I have a feeling I'll be hoarding these for awhile. I need some special projects to use them on!
An thanks again to Val and to Amuse for the great giveaways!

Unity bachelor #5: Around the house

I've been enjoying the Unity Bachelor contest in the Unity forum on SCS. It's been a great excuse to get my Unity stamps nice and inky. Last week's challenge was to use something from around the house in your card. I had a hard time coming up with something, then I was digging around in the pantry and happened on the aluminum foil. I stamped images from Unity's Darling Dots on the foil using Stazon inks, then ran the foil through the Cuttlebug. The foil is a little delicate (I didn't have any heavy duty foil, just regular) but it embosses beautifully! I rounded the corners, added another dot image and a sentiment from Gratitude=Joy and some bling and called it good! The foil adds so much shimmer, it was a little hard to take a photo of, but I think it turned out pretty cool.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity darling dots and gratitude=joy
Ink: Stazon, Colorbox silver
Paper: Tempting turquoise, lovely lilac, pink passion, foil
Accessories: cuttlebug, rhinestone brad, Kaisercraft rhinestones, circle punches

Res-Q #19: Trick or Treat

I had so much fun with this week's Res-Q challenge! Jean challenged us to make some Halloween treats or treat holders this week, and offered a whole bunch of ideas for inspiration. You can see the challenge and her ideas HERE. I decided to make some sour cream containers, since I'd never made any before and had always wanted to try. I like a challenge, so I made the first pair out of acetate. I stamped a bat image using black Stazon all over the acetate, then filled the containers with Halloween kisses.
For the second pair, I used some scraps of Halloween designer papers from my stash. These were so quick and easy; I made them in just a few minutes. I am adding them to goodie bags for my nieces and nephews, so I left the containers plain, but it would be easy to embellish them up a bit and add a tag or sentiment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Victorine originals bat
Ink: Stazon black
Paper: acetate, misc. dp
Accessories: crimper, sticky strip

Unity bachelor # 4

Here's another Unity Bachelor project. Last weekend's challenge was to make a recipe card! I cheated a bit; I already had a copy of this recipe printed out so I started with it. I kept the layout and design simple and went with green and a splash of red to match the basil/tomato combination in the brie. The recipe attaches to the card with the spiral clip for easy removal by the recipient. The base card is 5.5 inches square, and the recipe card is 3 x 5 so it could fit in a standard recipe box.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity gratitude = joy
Ink: printer, artichoke, mellow moss
Paper: artichoke, mellow moss, neenah white, artichoke dp
Accessories: brads, EK success punch, ribbon, spiral clip

Unity Bachelor #3

I was so busy sharing some of my World Cardmaking Day cards, I got behind on sharing my cards for the Unity Bachelor challenge that Unity is hosting on SCS. This is my card for week #3 of the challenge, will called for mixing polka dots and plaid on your card.
I couldn't find any plaid DP in my stash (can you believe it?), so I made a plaid background using my flannel plaid stamp from SU and inking it in teal and chocolate chip. I added some sponging to the background and and to the sentiment, then finished the card off with some polka dot and chocolate flowers from Petaloo.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity, SU Flannel Plaid bg
Ink: Taken with teal, chocolate chip
Paper: taken with teal, chocolate chip, vanilla
Accessories: Petaloo flowers and centers, teal Kaisercraft pearls, sponges